"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Giants have quite a few pitchers in the lower minors who could emerge as top prospects. I know Jason Bahr has his fan club, but is he really a better prospect than Jose Marte or Melvin Adon or Logan Webb or Joey Marciano? IDK.

I don't include Melvin Aldon because I'm assuming, from what I've read, that he is getting reps as a starter to fast track him to the majors to be a reliever. I like Webb too, but until he goes a whole season without getting hurt I wouldn't put him in my top 10. Marte and Marciano (especially Marciano) are players I definitely did not notice before, but now I am very much noticing them and me likey a lot.

I had read, and now can't find, that the Giants were starting Adon to get him more innings in so they could speed up his development to the majors. The article said the Giants project him as a future closer.

Many minor league analysts think Adon is a future reliever, but the Giants are not acting like they see him that way. In recent years, guys who they see as relievers are relieving in the minors. Strickland, Moronta, Law, Osich would be examples. I can't think of any recent minor league SP's who weren't at least long-relief/spot starters when they were called up.

One of the relief pitcher spots is going for a 5th OFer (Pence or Williamson) -- but the Giants have 6 OFers. Who will be watching the waiver wire?Blanco (0-5 yesterday) is the only LH OFer, Gorkys got 4 hits yesterday, Jackson has 5 years service and can refuse.

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.